To Max and Jennifer Jensen, winemaking is a science.
The long and complicated process usually takes several years to complete, and a lot can happen to a wine during that time.
“Everything is a matter of chemistry,” said Jennifer Jensen, sitting in the tasting room in the couple’s Lake Stevens home. “A lot of it is really about smell.”
Her husband, she said, has a nose for winemaking. When it is time to transfer aging wine from one oak barrel to another – a process called racking – Max Jensen can tell by the smell.
The Griffins Crossing winery is in the garage of the Jensen’s Lake Stevens home. Two 2,000-pound-capacity fermentation tanks hold crushed grapes from Eastern Washington for one to two weeks until the wine is ready to be aged in barrels.
“It’s real simple,” said Max Jensen. “It’s not mechanical. We use a simple spade tool to punch the grapes down in the fermenter. That keeps the skin in contact with the (red) wine.”
Both of the Jensens have full-time day jobs – he’s a supply-chain analyst for Boeing and she teaches third grade at Emerson Elementary in Everett. Running an independent business on the side has kept them busy.
Business and liquor licenses were obtained, bottle labels were submitted and approved, distribution points were established, and an elaborate web of networking within local wine communities was created.
And at some point, almost 75 cases of wine were produced.
“We have a three-spout bottle filler,” said Max Jensen. “We bottle everything by hand right there in our garage.”
This summer the couple are releasing their first wines, a syrah and a white blend of chardonnay, sauvingon blanc and semillion. The wines will be the products of two years of labor and a more than a decade of ambition.
Max Jensen’s fascination with wine began during a 1992 trip to Europe.
People enjoyed the moment more there, said his wife. “When he came back he wanted to be a part of that,” she added.
He got a job at Silver Lake Winery in Woodinville, where he began honing his winemaking skills.
Jennifer Jensen got her first taste of the wine business working as a waitress in California’s wine country. Unlike her husband, she is more interested in food and wine pairing.
“We both love wine,” she said. “I’m more of a food person. Max would probably not buy groceries and just buy wine if he could.”
It was the Jensens’ passion for wine that brought them together. While attending Sonoma State University in 1999, Jennifer Jensen spotted the screen name “winos3” on a Yahoo pen pals program. Her future husband shared the e-mail address with two roommates, but when she sent a message to the address, it was Max Jensen who replied.
The plot thickened when the couple discovered they had a professional connection as well. At that time he was the head winemaker at Di Stefano Cellars in Woodinville, and she worked for a California-based company that sold wine supplies.
“It turned out that he was a client,” she said.
During a period of long-distance courting, Max Jensen gave her a book about a couple who fall in love while exchanging postcards. One of the characters was named Griffin, which inspired the winery’s name.
After Jennifer Jensen moved to Washington in 2000, the couple made their first vintage in her apartment.
While Griffins Crossing has grown extensively since those days, Max Jensen said he doesn’t want the company to grow too much.
“We aren’t going to make more than 1,000 cases,” he said. “That’s sort of one of those magic numbers. After that, it becomes too much work to distribute your own wine.”
The couple might have to find another facility for the winery before they can reach full production. A new home with a larger garage or steel shed is a possibility, and there has been some talk of a possible co-op with other area winemakers.
But the Jensens’ immediate plan is to distribute three wines next year; they are adding a cabernet blend to their inventory. They will release 100 to 125 cases next summer, and hope to reach 300 cases in the next five years.
Jennifer Jensen is already thinking about how to balance teaching in the fall with wine deliveries, tasting appointments and the next harvest of grapes that will be arriving.
But being busy is a sign that the business is off to a good start.
“It’s really a passion,” she said. “It doesn’t even feel like work. We’re kind of open and seeing where that takes us.”
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